Best WordPress.com Alternatives Of 2025

While WordPress.com technically works with WooCommerce or any other WordPress.org-compatible e-commerce platform, you must purchase the Business plan or higher to install plugins to take advantage of that capability. Shopify is one of the best e-commerce platforms and includes e-commerce on all plans, including over 8,000 third-party apps and integrations on most of them.

Shopify’s website builder has a fairly low learning curve for basic adjustments and shop creation, although some customization features may be complicated enough that you might want to hire help for those.

WordPress.com (left) handles e-commerce through plugins such as WooCommerce, while Shopify (right) is designed from the ground up for e-commerce.

However, while not quite as easily customizable as the WordPress.org CMS that powers WordPress.com, it also offers far more server resources, with unlimited storage and bandwidth on most plans. Plus, very few features are restricted in lower price tiers when compared to WordPress.com.

Learn more: Read our full Shopify review.

Like WordPress.com, getting the best monthly price with Strikingly means paying several years upfront. If you can pull together the cash to pay for five years, you’ll save around 50% on your chosen plan. For example, the Limited plan drops from $12 per month billed monthly to the equivalent of $6 per month. Strikingly doesn’t hit you with giant rate increases after the first year, either. Instead, it offers a sale from time to time such as 30% off annual plans for Presidents Day.

While I wouldn’t suggest Strikingly for e-commerce due to transaction fees and low product limits for entry-level plans, it’s more suitable for informational and most other types of websites, as the website builder is straightforward with a surprisingly low learning curve. Templates are nicely varied, and there are plenty to choose from. Overall, it’s often less complicated than WordPress.org and especially more user-friendly than constantly hitting locked features in WordPress.com.

WordPress.com’s (left) builder feels a bit clunky compared to Strikingly’s (right) interface.

However, since Strikingly does not offer refunds if you cancel before your contract ends, testing before buying is particularly important. Make use of Strikingly’s free plan before buying to try out the builder and some of the features to ensure you’ll be happy before handing over any money.

Learn more: Read our full Strikingly review.

Wix’s website builders offer deep customization and advanced features such as animations. It also supports user-friendly blogging.

Wix’s pricing options aren’t the cheapest out there, but they are website and hosting in one and offer scalable solutions to the enterprise level. Plus, you get more resources for your money than the heavily gatekept WordPress.com. While there’s no deeply discounted introductory pricing, Wix does run sales throughout the year, and I’ve seen discounts as high as 50% on premium plans.

That said, you’ll have to jump to a mid-tier plan starting at $36 monthly to use e-commerce. To get even more resources, look at the Studio website builder plans. The Wix pricing on those is nearly identical, but the plans are more generous with resources than the Classic builder plans you see touted on the website.

WordPress.com (left) locks many customization options on lower-priced plans, while Wix (right) features numerous customization options with all plans.

The added power in the Studio plans is meant to complement the needs of agencies that build for other companies. However, Wix’s Studio builder, considered one of the best website builders out there, is quite usable for beginners as well, and you can access more of the features as your needs and skills grow. Overall, it’s much more flexible than the restricted feature version of WordPress.org that WordPress.com offers. However, it isn’t portable like WordPress sites.

Learn more: Read our full Wix review.